On the morning of March 29, the Leading Group for Improving Beijing's Role as the Center for International Exchanges held a plenary meeting. Cai Qi, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Head of the Leading Group, presided over the meeting. Chen Jining, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Mayor of Beijing and First Deputy Head of the Leading Group; Zhang Yankun, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, and Deputy Head of the Leading Group; and Liu Jianchao, Deputy Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee and Deputy Head of the Leading Group, attended the meeting.
It is pointed out at the meeting that the Communist Party of China will convene its 20th National Congress this year and Beijing has become a dual Olympic city. We must implement the instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping in his speeches on Beijing, focus on serving the major events of the Party and the State, give full play to Beijing's unique strengths as a dual Olympic city, and gather new momentum for building Beijing into the center for international exchanges.
The meeting emphasized that Beijing must keep to the highest standards to serve the country's overall diplomacy. Beijing should continuously improve its service mechanism for major state events and enhance its service capacities in light of the regular epidemic prevention and control protocols. It should optimize the spatial layout for international exchanges and promote the planning and building of the key areas and facilities. It should improve the environment for traditional state events, promote the building of the second phase of the China National Convention Center, improve the function of Yanqi Lake International Conference Resort and the building of the fourth embassy district. Beijing will endeavor to attract more international elements and functions to the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center (BMC), give full play to the openness of the airport economic zone and strengthen the open platforms of the two airports.
The meeting emphasized that Beijing should strive to be more international. Beijing should give full play to the China International Fair for Trade in Services, the Zhongguancun Forum and the Financial Street Forum, and use these national-level open development platforms to attract high-end international resources. It should draw more regional headquarters, R&D centers and foreign-funded projects of multinational companies, make the Global Digital Economy Conference, World 5G Convention and other events a success and hold more exhibitions featuring world renowned brands. It should speed up efforts to set up the Global Alliance for Trade in Services and attract more international organizations. It should make effective use of the legacy from the 2022 Winter Olympics and build Beijing into an international destination for winter sports and leisure tourism.
The meeting emphasized that Beijing should develop an international environment and provide high-quality services. It should further improve foreign-related information service, international education and international medical care, promote international talent community building with high standards, make the HICOOL Global Entrepreneur Summit a success and build a reservoir of best minds. It should foster more "small and smart" international business clusters, deliver Beijing International Film Festival, Beijing Marathon and other international cultural festivals and sports events with high standards, and further improve its foreign language environment.
Organization capacity and leadership were emphasized at the meeting. The leading group should take the lead and each task force and district should properly fulfill their tasks. Efforts shall be made to promote cooperation between ministries and the city government and improve the working mechanism to jointly promote the development of the center for international exchanges.
The attendees reviewed the key work of the leading group in 2022, relevant measures to support the settlement of international organizations and the evaluation report of relevant work conducted in 2021. They also reviewed the adjustment of the members of the leading group, the 2021 work reports of the leading group and each task force, and the key work in 2022.
Central and municipal government officials, including Deng Li, Guo Tingting, Zhang Xu, Guo Lanfeng, Cui Shuqiang, Qi Jing, Sun Meijun, Zhang Jiaming, Mo Gaoyi, Zhang Jiandong, Sui Zhenjiang, Lu Yan, Wang Hong, Yang Jinbai, and the Secretary-General of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, Dai Binbin attended the meeting.
(Reporters: Qi Mengzhu, Fan Junsheng)
